WALL PAINTING CONSERVATION COURSE

October - December 2017

During my exchange in Tartu Art College, I took a course on wall painting conservation. The wall painting we conserved is located on the basement of Tartu Art College’s Tähe – building. It was painted by students of Tartu Art College’s Painting department between 2011 and 2012. The mural had suffered severely from moisture that had come from the structures of the building. The moisture had caused salts to form on the painting, and these salts had pushed forth the surface layers. There were powdering and detached paint layers, hollows and loose plaster. 

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Our aim was stabilise the condition of the painting by to re-attaching as many of the fallen pieces and flaking paint layers as possible, filling hollows and holes, and retouching the areas that had lost paint layers. The painting was dry cleaned, the hollows were filled with mortar and the flaking paints were consolidated with Klucel G glue and Japanese paper. The retouching was done with puntinato technique, so that it could be recognised from the original painting.